Scott’s Pointe groundwater has low levels of PFAS, tests negative for other harmful contaminants

Samples of groundwater from the Scott’s Pointe amusement park site in Calverton tested positive for low levels of PFAS and negative for other harmful pollutants, according to test results recently received by the Town of Riverhead.

Some residents have been concerned about the possibility that activities at the Scott’s Pointe site might pollute the man-made pond at the site and, in turn, the local public water supply. The pond there is fed by groundwater located in the short-term capture zone of a public water well. The business also illegally constructed a go-kart track on the property with pipes to drain stormwater runoff directly into the pond; a Riverhead Planning Department staff report said the discharge could introduce contaminants into the water.

The groundwater samples were taken Nov. 22, analyzed at Long Island Analytical Lab and sent back to Scott’s Pointe’s operator, Island Water Park Corp., on Dec. 17. The town only just received the results Feb. 28; RiverheadLOCAL received the document on March 4 through a Freedom of Information Law request. 

Scott’s Pointe’s operator, Island Water Park Corp. and its owner, Eric Scott, was cited by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for unauthorized dumping and use of solid waste on the property during the project’s development, an activity which had the potential to introduce contaminants into the groundwater. The owner was also issued a notice of violation from the DEC for using the man-made pond for recreation while its mining permit was active, and was issued tickets after that notice was violated. (DEC spokespeople have not provided further information about the status of the charges, which they said are being administratively adjudicated.)

The test detected small amounts of two different kinds of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — a group of synthetic chemicals whose consumption is linked to adverse human health effects like cancer and are nicknamed “forever chemicals” because of how slowly they break down over time. The test detected 3.51 ng/L for PFOS and 1.91 ng/L for PFOA — both below the 4 ng/L maximum contaminant limit for drinking water the Environmental Protection Agency was going to set, before the Trump administration paused all federal rulemaking. 

Other PFAS chemicals were not detected in the drinking water, nor were other harmful contaminants like 1,4 Dioxane, a potential carcinogen that has been found in Long Island’s groundwater and drinking water.

So should anyone going to Scott’s Pointe be concerned about swimming in the pond? 

“I can tell you, when you’re a bathing beach, the health department tests you every week of the summer, and they said it’s the cleanest water they’ve ever seen,” Island Water Park manager Ken Myers said of the pond last November during a Town Board work session.

Scott did not return an email asking about the condition of the pond’s water or requesting comment for this article. 

If the water quality in the pond is similar to the tested groundwater, which came from a well, it’s likely there is little risk for PFAS accumulating in your body in large amounts; exposure to PFAS from showering and bathing in contaminated water is low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Dermal exposure to PFAS through swimming is likely to be very small and not a large concern,” Elsie Sunderland, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University and researcher who studies the bioaccumulation of chemicals in humans, said in an email. “There is some concern about dermal exposure to PFAS when people use personal care products with extremely high concentrations… People tend to swallow a small amount of water when swimming, but again this is likely a very small dose of PFAS unless the system is extremely contaminated.”

“Lower concentrations of PFAS (including those below drinking water standards) result in lower exposures at the same levels of consumption  — so this is clearly better,” Sunderland said of the testing results. “For individuals concerned about PFAS, it is good to minimize all sources of exposure, but it is almost impossible to avoid exposure entirely given their prevalence in modern commerce.”

PFAS pollution has been found in high levels in areas surrounding Scott’s Pointe, which was a part of the former Grumman naval weapons manufacturing plant given to Riverhead Town in 1996 for economic development. The former Navy property is undergoing remedial investigations for PFAS and other chemical pollution. 

Riverhead Water District Superintendent Frank Mancini said the test results are “indicative of the exact same contamination we see all over that area that the Navy caused.” Mancini requested the monitoring well and testing from the business as a condition of the park’s amended site plan approval. 

“I think it would be very unlikely for Island Water Park to have caused that [contamination] and nothing else,” he added. “And when we see it all over the site in astronomical numbers, in the parts per thousand, it’s not unreasonable to see it at those very low detections nearby.”

Scott’s Pointe amusement park is north of a Riverhead Water District well, and is in its short-term capture zone. Mancini said any PFAS detection causes him concern and hopes the results lead to an investigation of the area. “If it never got any worse than this, the wells capture huge swaths of land, so it’s possible it wouldn’t be an issue,” he said. “But if it’s indicative of a larger problem, that would be more significant.”

Mancini said he sent the results of the groundwater test to the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, the Navy and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; the county and Navy acknowledged they received his email, he said. 

In an email to RiverheadLOCAL, a Navy spokesperson said the closest area of concern identified by the Navy to Scott’s Pointe was a spill on the runway “approximately one-mile due east and downgradient of the water park. The results of these samples were predominantly not detected, with only minor detections at the spill source area, and were below the EPA Regional Screening Levels (as well as the EPA Maximum Contaminant level).” 

The spokesperson said the Scott’s Pointe site “has already been evaluated for PFAS investigation, and no action is required at this time.”

Spokespeople for the DEC and county health department did not return emails seeking comment on the results of the groundwater test before this article was published.  

The first test is a baseline sample to monitor how the groundwater on the property might change from the business’s activities; it will be tested every two years for 20 years, under an agreement between the town and Island Water Park Corp. The project’s February 2022 site plan approval required the monitoring well agreement to be signed and a covenant reciting its terms to be recorded in the Suffolk County Clerk’s Office prior to the town issuing a certificate of occupancy for the facility. But the agreement was not signed and the covenants not recorded before the town issued three certificates of occupancy for the facility in fall 2023, which allowed the park to legally open.

Island Water Park Corp. is currently pursuing approvals to legalize the 113,470-square-foot paved racetrack and a 13,000-square-foot asphalt pickleball court area, and to convert a 3,500-square-foot storage room on the second floor of its building to an assembly area that the company wants to use as a 250-seat catering facility. Last week, the project cleared a major hurdle when the Town Board determined the site plan did not need a detailed environmental review.

Instead, the board imposed six “enforceable conditions” on the revised site plan application, aimed at mitigating potential environmental impacts. The conditions include an amended grading and drainage plan to prevent stormwater runoff from entering the pond, implementing spill prevention measures for go-kart fuel, and approvals from the DEC and county health department.